Drill Press made Cigar Pen

A couple years ago I decided to try my hand at making pens and invested in the various start up junk like a mandrel, pen mill set, pen press,and a couple of pen kits to find out my #2 morse taper lathe is only on the tail stock and not the head stock. At the time I figured I had spent all I wanted to on the venture and even though Pen State Ind. has a mandrel for a threaded stud head stock, I canned the idea and forgot about it.

The stuff has been sitting forgotten about in a drawer to my lathe since and today I came across it rummaging around one of the drawers. Playing with it a little bit, I decided to give it a try and after trying to think of ways to make a chuck to mount the morse taper mandrel on the lathe I canned the idea and mounted it in my drill press. Then I clamped a piece of bar stock in a machinists vise and secures it to the drill table to use as a tool rest.

Turning virtically on the drill press will get the job done, but to be truthful, I think if I make any more I will invest in the proper mandrel for my lathe as it is awkward turning in this fashion.

I didn’t have any HUT wax sticks or traditional finished I hear you are to use on pens, and not wanting to take the time to set up to spray lacquer on such a small piece, I experimented with an off the wall finishing method. I turned the piece with the drill set at 2300 RPM and sealed the wood with a light coat of CA glue, sanded by hand with 400 grit and then applied English Oil which is basically tinted lemon oil and buffed to a nice luster. I am curious how long my unconventional finish will last.

Any thoughts from experienced pen turners out there? Good, bad and ugly comments are welcome.